Dubai: A worker has been accused of fatally stabbing his compatriot in a heated argument, after the victim threw the worker’s garments from the balcony in jest, while both were under the influence of alcohol, a Dubai Court of First Instance heard on Sunday morning.
The Indian defendant, 37, was charged with the premeditated murder and stabbing the victim three times in his abdomen.
According to prosecutors, on March 30 this year, the defendant’s roommate welcomed the victim and other friends inside their room, at a labour accommodation in Muhaisna 2 area, for a farewell celebration.
The victim was sitting on the balcony drinking alcohol with the men, when he laughed and flung the defendant’s garments off the balcony.
An Indian witness, 27, said the defendant became angry and yelled but the victim, in turn, insulted his family.
“The deceased was joking when he threw out the clothes. The defendant was angry, especially after the deceased insulted his family’s honour,” the witness testified.
The defendant went inside the apartment and slammed the balcony door. The victim followed him and both exchanged verbal insults.
The defendant then took a kitchen knife and stabbed the victim three times, before kicking him and leaving.
“I saw the victim lying in a pool of blood inside the room and his friends told me that he was killed. They called the Dubai Police and I went downstairs and saw the defendant standing near the building — he was bleeding from his fingers. He didn’t speak to me. The police officers came and arrested him,” an Indian supervisor, 33, said in records.
Th police found the knife hidden in a bathroom on the ground floor.
The defendant told officers that he stabbed the victim because he insulted his mother.
However, the defendant denied the charge of premediated murder and but confessed to consuming alcohol.
The trial will begin later this month after the defendant is assigned a lawyer.
